Masquerade
by Queen Violet of the Underworld
Summary: A mask hides who you truly are. But the mystery is the fun part. Right? OCx?, based on a true story that happened to moi.


_I was a young girl then… only 16… _

"Aiko. You have to come join us." The girl in the beautiful silk black dress slammed her mask onto the table, then sat down. Her short dark hair framed her highly affronted face, and her sharp blue eyes narrowed as I took a sip of my mango mocktail.

"Tora. No," I responded casually, stirring my drink with the small umbrella that it was served with. All around us, couples in masks were dancing at the Ouran Masquerade Ball, put on by the Host Club. Funnily enough, most of them were nowhere to be seen.

"We brought you here to have fun, for god's sake!" Tora protested. She pointed at me. "This is not fun. This is being a complete loner!"

"I don't like dancing, I don't like dresses, I don't like masks, the only good thing here are the drinks, and even those don't have alcohol in them." I rolled my eyes as she glared at me. What I spoke was the truth. Tora had literally dragged me here against my will.

"Number one, we taught you how to dance. Number two, we dressed you up. Number three, we made your freaking mask! How do you think we feel, huh?"

"Talking of the two of you, where is your darling other half?" I asked, referring to my best friend's twin sister. Many assumed that these twins weren't close at all. Kaylee was bright, bubbly, and blonde, while Tora was dark, quiet, and sarcastic. However, they gave away their closeness in the nuances in their speech. Even now, Tora unconsciously said 'we' instead of 'I' in many cases, having gotten used to being two people. "Isn't Kaylee part of the Get-Aiko-To-Admit-Her-Hidden-Femininity brigade?"

Tora answered with a gesture to the crowd. I followed her hand and saw the sprightly blonde Kaylee twirling wildly under Haninozuka-san's arm. "He asked her to dance, see?" I chuckled, smiling lightly as I watched the two laugh together in the center of the dance floor.

"Anyway, back to the point. Your dress isn't bad, it's actually stunning, if you'd just get up from your chair and let everyone see it." I looked down in distaste to the green jail I was imprisoned in. It was a floor-length, strapless dress - if I tried to walk in it, it'd be a strapless dress on the floor. "And before you whine about how you can't walk in your dress, let me finish. Your mask is lovely, much glitzier than mine." I gave that one to her - glitzy was the perfect word. My green mask had been glittered and feathered by an overexcited Kaylee while Tora's was just all black with white swirls near the eye.

"Tora, just give up, please," I pleaded. "I'm not going to dance, okay?"

Tora's glare came back to rest on my face. I looked down, avoiding her harsh gaze. Don't get me wrong, Tora was one of my closest friends, but she had a tendency to be a bit domineering.

"Konoha-san?" That deep voice was definitely not Tora's. I glanced up and saw her speechless (for once) as Morinozuka-san approached her. "Would you like to dance?"

Tora blushed multiple shades of red, looked anywhere but my face or his, fidgeted with her dress…

"Stop stalling and dance, Tora," I prodded her. "I'll be fine, I don't need a babysitter."

"Well, okay then… I'd love to," she admitted shyly as she got up from her seat. She gingerly accepted his offered arm and the tall man whisked her onto the dance floor. I sighed, downing my drink. I got up for a refill, then came back to my table to find someone waiting there.

"Hello," I said, flicking my long red tresses away from my face. The newcomer was dressed in a fully black suit, with a fedora and a white mask. His mask did not cover only his eyes, as everyone else's did, but his whole face. I slid into my seat and regarded him curiously. This could be fun.

The masked man nodded to me politely.

"So, are you choosing not to dance? My friends have been accosting me all night." I rolled my eyes, and my acquaintance's shoulders shook as if he were laughing. Then he regarded me closely, elbow on table, chin in gloved hand. I copied his motion. "You don't talk, huh?" He shook his head no, and I grinned. "Interesting… So who are you? Or should that be a guessing game?"

He shrugged, his shadowed eyes boring into my green ones.

"Are you a first year?"

He shook his head.

"A third year?"

He shook his head again

"So you're in my year."

He leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers. It was obviously a noncommittal answer, a 'possibly', or a 'probably'.

"Do you even go to Ouran, first of all?"

He spread his palms, the universal sign language for "Don't ask me".

"That's not fair!" I protested, then looked at him sharply. "Do you know me?"

With a flourish, he removed the white gloves from his hands and retrieved a pen from who knows where. He wrote two words on a napkin, then passed it to me. AIKO TAKAMURA was printed in perfect, neat, anonymous capital letters.

"Well then, Stalker-san," I muttered, scowling at the masked man. Of course, I couldn't see his expression, but I had a feeling he was smirking at me. "So, Stalker-san. You're a 2nd year, most probably, if you do go to Ouran, and you're a stalker who knows me. Hmmm… who could you be?" I almost didn't hear the dancers stop moving as the song came to a close. I was deep in thought. However, I couldn't miss the next song starting. In a blink of an eyes, my new friend had dragged me out of my seat and onto the dance floor.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no." I tried to wriggle out of his firm, yet comforting grip, but failed. I looked up at his expressionless mask and relented, settling myself in his arms as we elegantly stepped and twirled around the dance floor.

I admit, I was very curious. Mystery intrigued me, whether it was in novels, movies, or real people. I wanted to find out who it was behind the mask, before the occasion came that he took it off. That was what I hated the most in any story - the big reveal. The questioning and confusion were a lot more fun to read about. After the reveal, it all went downhill.

"You're not a bad dancer, Stalker-san," I said casually as we passed Kaylee and Haninozuka-san. My blonde friend winked brightly at me while the 3rd year smiled at my dance partner. "You know Haninozuka-san?" I asked, receiving a nod from him in response.

The song played, and we danced, me holding up the conversation with intelligent chit-chat, him answering with a nod, shrug, or shake of the head. Tora raised an eyebrow as she spun passed us and whispered, "Who's the guy?" I shrugged back at her, and I could feel my partner's shoulders shake as he laughed.

"Don't laugh at me," I snapped, but I couldn't help but grin. He spun me, I twirled and managed to not decapitate him. He led me in a new direction and I followed without tripping over his or my feet. For some reason, even my senses were more aware - I heard more, saw more, smelt more, felt more, as I danced with him. It was like perfection in a bottle. I told him that. He laughed. Suddenly, we froze in the center of the floor. The song had long ended, but I hadn't noticed. I was lost in my fascination with the charming man opposite me.

A beeping sound emitted from his pocket and with a low bow, he left the floor, quickly disappearing through the crowd. I paused for a few seconds, then ran after him.

"Wait!" I held my dress up to avoid tearing it and ran after him, as fast as one can run through a mob of people while wearing heels. "Wait! Stalker-san!" I managed to exit the ballroom and quickly left my ridiculous shoes near a staircase. "Come back, Stalker-san! Where are you!" I yelled as I flew down the halls.

No, I was wrong. The big reveal, though a nuisance, was needed. I needed to know who he was. I barely knew anything about him, and he was good at keeping it that way. Was he pessimistic? Optimistic? Did he have a temper? Was he fair? Dark? Intelligent? Oblivious? All that I knew was that he was charming, and that wasn't helpful at all - I mean, I do go to school with the Host Club.

The Host Club. Could he be one of them? Haninozuka-san had smiled at him - or was that just my wishful imagination? Who in the club was that height? That figure? I barely knew them - only the 3rd years since the Konoha twins had crushes on them.

Coming to a halt, I spotted him at the end of a hallway. He was muttering into a phone, back to me, his mask in his hand. Much too far away for me to hear his voice, to see his face, to do anything. Much too close for me to give up, for me to walk away, for me to forget. But I was too late - he had already hung up and left the building through a side door. Spurring myself into action again, I ran out after him.

"Stalker-san!" I cried as he got into a limo. I waved my sparkling green mask furiously at him as the sleek car drew away. Then my arm drooped, falling to my side, as the limo turned the corner and out of view.

_"And that's that," the middle-aged woman said, tucking the comforter around her two children. The boy was already long gone into dreamland, but the girl rubbed at her lethargic eyes? _

_"Did you ever see Stalker-san again, Mum?" _

_The mother chuckled quietly, patting her daughter on the head. "That's a story for another night. Go to sleep, darling." _

_-fin-_


End file.
